Traffic safety and efficiency of roadway work zones have been considered to be one of the major concerns in highway traffic safety and operations in Florida. ITS-based lane management strategies were introduced to work zones to enhance both the safety and the mobility of drivers. Previous research referred to work zone lane management strategies as dynamic lane merging. The dynamic lane merging, can take two forms; dynamic early merge and dynamic late merge. This study aims at deploying these two forms of dynamic lane merging in a 3 to 2 lane closure configuration work zone and assesses the effect of the latter on the traffic safety and operations at the work zone. Data was collected extensively which enabled us to compare safety and operational Measures of Effectiveness (MOE) under different demand volumes. The temporal speed fluctuation at the location of the Remote Traffic Microwave Sensor (RTMS) of the work zone and the capacity of the work zone under the control (MAS) and test MOT plans (early and late dynamic lane merge) were compared. Results showed that the early and late dynamic lane merges have the potential to enhance safety as well as operations in Florida work zones. The early and late SDLMS performed better than the regular MAS MOT plan. Evaluating safety and operational measures of effectiveness, we concluded that the dynamic early merge performs best under low volumes and the dynamic late merge performs best under heavier volumes.
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